United adding bars to cockpit doors

Jon Hilkevitch and Rogers WorthingtonTribune staff reporters

United Airlines said Monday it will immediately begin installing steel reinforcing bars on the cockpit doors of all its aircraft to protect pilots from forced break-ins and to provide a greater sense of security to jittery passengers.

Continental Airlines and Northwest Airlines are considering changes to enhance cockpit-door security, officials for the two carriers said, while the other major airlines declined to comment on what they termed ongoing security improvements.

Seeking a stopgap measure while federal officials explore ways to make cockpits more secure, United officials said they received a highly unusual emergency waiver from the Federal Aviation Administration.

The waiver allows the airline to install 3-foot-long girt bars and locking hardware on the inside of cockpit doors without first going through the lengthy FAA approval process, which on average takes almost three years.

"El Al [the Israeli national airline] has had a similar bar running across the width of its cockpit doors for years," said a senior United official, who did not want to be identified. "We need to put in a temporary fix now, for ourselves and for the peace of mind of our passengers."

FAA officials said they were not ready to make a formal announcement on new cockpit door security measures, citing recommendations due for release as early as Tuesday by two task forces created by U.S. Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta.

The two working groups on airport and aircraft security issued their findings on potential short- and- long-term solutions to Mineta on Monday, said Bill Mosley,a spokesman for the Department of Transportation.

President Bush said during a speech in Chicago last week that stronger cockpit doors are a top priority in the wake of four suicide-hijackings Sept. 11, but they don't represent a permanent solution in the battle against terrorism aimed at the airlines.

The administration said it would like to eventually see the installation of an impenetrable partition that walls off the flight crew from the passenger compartment, making it impossible for terrorists to get near the cockpit.

Still unresolved, however, is a key part of the security package: whether the workers who screen passengers and their carry-on baggage should be federal employees with law-enforcement training or private workers managed by the federal government.

Bush last week called for better government oversight of the screeners, but administration officials said they were wary of making them federal employees.

A version of the girt bars that will be used to secure United's cockpits is already widely used on aircraft doors in passenger cabins to prevent the emergency evacuation slides that are stowed in the doors from deploying unintentionally.

United will install the steel bars on all of its more than 500 planes at either the bottom, mid-section or top of the cockpit door frames, said United spokesman Joseph Hopkins.

The specific arrangement will depend on the type of plane. Boeing Co. said there are more than 40 models of cockpit doors in use on commercial planes worldwide. All the doors are designed for privacy and to break away to allow pilots to escape in an emergency--not to keep hijackers or other terrorists out of the cockpit.

"We intend to be a leader in this area," Hopkins said, adding that United has provided the FAA with technical documents outlining the girt bar installation. He said United's goal is to complete the work within 30 days.

A United official said the 3-foot bar strengthens the cockpit walls in addition to fortifying the door, although the emergency step will only slow down, not repel, a determined attacker.

Herb Hunter, a United Boeing 777 captain and a spokesman for the Air Line Pilots Association, applauded the cooperation between United and the FAA to address the situation.

"This isn't the time to fight over dotted i's and crossed t's," Hunter said. "The FAA wants us to have some way to fix the door now, before somebody else tries to exploit the situation."

Added Richard Doubrava, a security expert with the Air Transport Association, an airline industry trade group: "They need an immediate fix until the FAA, the industry and the manufacturers come up with a long-term plan for reconfiguring the cockpit door."

The Association of Flight Attendants has supported calls to beef up cockpit doors, but some flight attendants expressed concern about not being able to open the cockpit door from the passenger cabin. One of the emergency escape routes for airline crew members is a window in the cockpit that can be opened, allowing pilots and flight attendants to evacuate the plane by lowering themselves by a rope fastened to the cockpit ceiling.

Boeing said it will not participate in any piecemeal efforts to retrofit its aircraft with girt bars out of a concern that changes intended to produce benefits, if not thoroughly researched, could yield unintended consequences.

"The girt bars might prevent unauthorized entry into the cockpit, but they also might prevent a quick evacuation in a fire or the ability of flight attendants to help pilots who become incapacitated," said Boeing spokeswoman Liz Verdier.